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Martha Traviss
Martha Traviss is a hunter operating out of the Harvelle's Roadhouse in Cleveland. Early History Martha Traviss didn't exactly have what you might call a model childhood. Her dad, absent and anonymous, didn't figure into things and her mom might have been present, but she wasn't often *there*. Her passing away (cancer) when Martha was nineteen was almost a relief to Martha. What little past she had was gone. The Hidden World It was also an eye opening. The night after the funeral, Martha had her first encounter with the hidden world. She slipped back to the cemetery to say one last goodbye, and was beyond startled to see a shadowy, ashen figure wandering amidst the graves. A figure with sharp teeth, hunger in its eyes, and the quickness of a cat. It had her in a flash, cold nails digging into her arms and cold lips brushing at her neck, and then they both screamed, her in fear and it in pain. Her rescuer was a big, quiet man with a trucker's cap and a small arsenal. He explained a little bit about the truth to Martha - monsters and hunters - enough to freak her out, not enough to give her much of an edge if it happened again. Then he left, leaving behind a number for some bar ("If you ever run into one of them again") and a thousand questions. Hunting After that, life didn't go back to normal. It never does for hunters. Martha knew she didn't have it in her to become a shotgun-and-stakes type, not like Bobby and whoever else ran that kind of life, but she couldn't let it go, either. It took months, but eventually she worked her way up from the crystal-gazers at the New Age store to a group of Wiccans off campus and finally to an honest-to-God witch, an old lady with a raspy laugh who'd forgotten more about the occult than most hunters would ever know. She took Martha under her wing, teaching her ancient, secret spells for summoning and binding and dismissing demons and ghosts, and a hundred folk remedies and charms to keep ills, mundane and magical, at bay. Then, after three years, she was just gone. Martha followed what faint trail there was, but it dead-ended after a few weeks. Nobody and nothing would say anything except that something big, some kind of demon princess nobody wanted to even name, had gotten word of Old Helen and decided to settle an old score. And that was that. In the five years since then, Martha has made a living telling fortunes, but like any hunter, the chase is her calling. She uses her spells and rituals to make up for a lack of firepower (not that she doesn't keep a gun and a few knives handy). So far, she's come out ahead more often than not. That's about as much as a hunter can hope for. Personality Like most hunters, Martha is a bit schizophrenic. In her 'day life' she's a flirty psychic-for-hire, breezing through life by reading palms and dispensing banal advice to over-stressed soccer moms. Her social life isn't exactly suffering, either. On the hunt, though, she sheds all that and focuses on getting the job done. The situation being what it is, she gets along fairly well with other hunters, the kind who carries around enough weapons for a street gang in their trunk. Some of them don't like her reliance on magic. The smart ones lose their attitude when she figures out a way to trap an angry ghost in a box. The stupid ones probably end up wishing they had. Martha doesn't stick around long enough to find out what happens to them. 'Vital Statistics' Age: 29 Height: 5'7" Hair: Black Eyes: Brown Place of Birth: Seattle, Washington Family *Aileen Traviss (mother, deceased) Professional Occupation: Fortune-Teller Training/Education *High school *Two years community college Played by Paul